agnate meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

agnate

noun

/ˈæɡneɪt/

Etymology Learned borrowing from Latin agnātus (“paternal kinsman”).

A relative whose relation is traced only through male members of the family.

A great-grandfather is an agnate if he is your father’s father’s father.
Men accuse agnates of their own generation of bewitching them.2013, John Middleton, E. H. Winter, Witchcraft and Sorcery in East Africa, page 203:

Any paternal male relative.

Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences A statement having a similar meaning to another, but a different structure.

adj

Etymology Learned borrowing from Latin agnātus (“paternal kinsman”).

Related to someone by male connections or on the paternal side of the family.

allied; akin

Assume more or less of a fictitious character, but congenial and agnate […] with the former.1829, Walter Savage Landor, “Florentine, English Visitor, and Landor”, in Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, volume V (second series, volume II), London: James Duncan, […], →OCLC:

Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences Having a similar semantic meaning.

[...] we can talk about a swim, a drink, a look, even though swim, drink and look can also show up as verbs in agnate clauses.2013, Thomas Bloor, Meriel Bloor, The Functional Analysis of English: